Happy Happy Birthday!!

This little guy, born on Feb. 28, 2011:

has turned 2 years old!!

I feel so blessed to be able to be Calder's mom.  He is teaching me sooo much about love, and patience (not all days go smoothly around here), service, joy, and so much more.  I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be a mom!  Though it can be very trying and hard, it is the best thing ever!  Calder has brought so much joy to our home.

He was so excited for his birthday!  He kept telling me all about how he was going to turn 2, and how Papa (grandpa) was going to come, how he was going to have a car cake, and eat ice cream (all said in 4 words...two! Papa! car! ice-cream!).  Unfortunately, most of the things he was excited for did not happen on his birthday, but will happen on Saturday when we have the big family party.  But we had a fun birthday, anyways!  I will write more about birthday festivities with another post, once we have had his actual party.

For now, I just want this to be an all-about-Calder post.

He is my sweet boy, who will still cuddle with his mommy.  I am so grateful for that!

It has been interesting to see him growing older and learning new things.  We are seeing some of each of us in him (for better or worse!)  He has a lot of my personality - he is cautious about most new things, and meeting new people. But when he becomes comfortable with the idea, or person, he jumps in with two feet.  However, he is not cautious about physical activities - something I wish he was a little more cautious about.  He will climb on just about anything with no fear, jump off of most anything (within about foot off the ground) and LOVES when Craig throws him around the room.  Thankfully, he has not thought about climbing out of his crib yet.

He loves to do everything that Craig does.  It is the cutest thing!  And whether or not Calder is mimicking him on purpose, it happens a lot!

Calder idolizes Craig. It is so cute how he wants to do everything like his Daddy. And I am so grateful that Craig is such a good example to him!

Reading the news

Making paper airplanes

Fixing the tandem bike.  Calder LOVES working with tools, and is very proud to have his own set of them. 

Craig told him a little bit about his mission one day, and put his mission plaque in Calder's room.  Calder now keeps saying "Mish! Calder!" He is so excited to go on a mission one day!  Even though I am sure he has no idea what that really means, I love that he is so excited about it.

He has 3 stuffed animals that he carries around with him as he's playing.  Bear, Tigger, and Bunny.  He calls them by their names, and goes to look for them if one of them is missing.  He doesn't love sleeping with them in his crib, though.

Bear, Tigger, Bunny, and Calder in the tent.  We set this little tent up in the living room one day, and Calder was in heaven.

He loves two blankets specifically right now, and has named them "Mama" (because Grandma made it for him) and "Black" (one of the main colors on the blanket is black).  He has to sleep with both of them, and then spends a half an hour every day devoted to wrestling with them on the couch.  Craig and I were actually using "Black" (it started out as ours) but one day when we were putting Calder to bed, he walked out of his room into ours, and came back with it in his arms.  It has been his ever since.  

Calder knows all of his basic colors, and tells me the color of lots of things, including traffic lights, books, stuffed animals, dishes, etc.

He can count to three on his own, and knows some random numbers up to 10.  He often skips one, though, and jumps right to two when I try to count with him.  I guess he figures I already said "one" so he shouldn't have to say it, too? :)

He says well over 100 words now, and is putting 2 words together at a time.  He calls me "Becca" sometimes, and secretly I think it is pretty funny, although I still insist on being called "Mom."  Last week, he tried a pop-tart for the first time and he loved them!  The next day, he asked for a cracker, and when I showed him his options he said, "No, cookie cracker."  I think he was referring to a pop-tart.  I am actually pretty proud of him for coming up with that description! :)  We let him have a "cookie cracker" for his birthday breakfast.

He loves to ride his bike right now.  Preferably outside, but we have only had so many sunny days in the last few months, so that hasn't been an option too often.  I am surprised at how comfortable he is on it; he cruises all over on it!  

Riding bikes with Daddy (and it's an older picture - we got him a helmet for his birthday)

Calder loves the snow.  It took him a minute, but once he discovered how nice gloves are, he was way excited to start digging!  We have made a snowman together, and countless snowballs that he likes either me or him to throw.  Sometimes, he'll just stand on the sidewalk and dig into the giant mounds we have here.

Digging into the mounds of snow

One of his many faces

Snowman!  Calder mixes up the words and calls him "man-ow"

 We spend time almost every day coloring, finger-painting, painting with watercolors, or playing with play-dough.   He only lasts about 5 minutes.  Except for play-dough, he will play with that much longer.  It is kind of funny though - he could care less if he gets food on his hands - he would have no problem eating yogurt with his fingers (messy!), but he wanted me to wipe off his fingers after every minute or so of finger-painting, and gets really bugged when water-colors or any other art supply gets on his hands.

Finger painting for the first time.  He loved it.

Play-dough is definitely his favorite right now.  He loves to make pizzas.  I help him roll out some dough, and then he puts his toppings on and pretends to eat it.  Thankfully, he just pretends and hasn't eaten any so far.  

He loves to run!  He loves any game/activity/anything where he gets to play with a ball.  

As far as food goes, he is a decent eater.  I struggle getting him to eat veggies, but we get them in when we can.  He loves cream of wheat right now and requests it almost every morning for breakfast. He also loves yogurt, cheese, pears, rice, beans, peanut butter, mac and cheese, ice-cream, and any kind of candy.  At least there are a few healthy things on the list? :)

Calder LOVES technology.  My phone, the TV, the computer, anything.  I usually limit him to one 1/2 hour show a day, but I love the days when we don't watch any.  Right now he still enjoys baby einstein, he watches Curious George, some Cat in the Hat, and whatever else I decide to show him.  Those are the regulars, though.  He hasn't really seen much of Sesame Street, but LOVES Elmo, and refers to him frequently. (Elmo is on his toothbrush, and used to be on his diapers. Maybe that's where it came from?)

His favorite toys right now are books, cars, balls, puzzles, play-dough.

He loves this car track!  

We have started the potty training thing.  He was showing some interest, so I decided to go for it.  Potty training really deserves a post on it's on, but after a week of trying lots of different things, and lots of ups and downs, he was doing so well there was no turning back!  He is now in his underwear all the time, except for naps and night time.  He does really well staying dry - poop is still an issue, but he is getting better with that, too. Most of the time, I have to be the one to remind him to go potty - he hasn't quite mastered letting me know that he has to go, yet.

Very comfortable with his little potty.  This is before we started training, but he still will sit on it for a while and multi-task.

My cousin started "birthday interviews" with her kids, and I loved the idea!  So I decided to do it with our kids.  I really wanted to post it here, but because of technical difficulties, I'll have to post it later.

Calder, we love you and are so grateful for you!  We are so proud of you for how much you are learning and growing!  You are such a joy to have in our home!  Happy Birthday!!
(Oh, and thanks for taking a 3 hour nap today so I could finish this post!)